1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus for measuring electrical power consumed by an application or supplied by a source. More particularly, the invention relates to an integrated circuit which provides information about electric power in a distribution system when coupled to voltage and current transducers in that distribution system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Electricity meters are used for measuring the quantity of electric energy consumed or supplied by a particular application. In alternating current supply or distribution systems, electromechanical watt-hour meters typically have been used. Such well know watt-hour meters are used throughout the world to measure the consumption and supply of electricity, and are a common fixture on almost any residential or industrial structure to which power is supplied. While such meters are highly reliable, their mechanical construction sharply limits the range of additional functions they may perform. For example, charging different rates at different times of the day or under different utility load conditions is difficult, as is using the meter itself to control a load or a generator. Additionally, such mechanical meters would be quite expensive to fabricate were they to perform many of these functions.
Completely electronic meters, but not integrated circuits, for the measurement of power are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,015,140, 4,066,960, and 4,217,546. The techniques therein employ well-known "mark-space amplitude" multiplication or "pulse width-pulse height" multiplication in which the amplitude of a pulse waveform is proportional to one variable and the pulse width is proportional to a second variable. In the case of power metering, if one variable is the potential supplied to or from a load and the other variable is the current flowing to or from a load, then the average value of the waveform is proportional to the power. Generally, the pulse width is determined by a comparator which receives both a triangle waveform and the potential supplied to or from the load.
Unfortunately, these techniques suffer from a number of disadvantages which reduce the precision of the meter for low measurement. The multiplier described in these patents injects charge into downstream circuitry which that circuitry incorrectly interprets as a valid signal thereby causing significant errors in the power measurement. The approach shown in the '960 patent relies upon a resistor-capacitor network to provide a frequency source. This is disadvantageous in view of the cost of a sufficiently high quality capacitor. Additionally, at low load conditions, the offset voltage influence of the operational amplifier is not cancelled.
Because of the low cost of manufacture, minimal size, and high reliability of solid-state circuits, there have been many attempts to design power meters using integrated circuits. Integrating all of the functions of a power meter onto one or more integrated circuit chips lowers manufacturing cost, and enables the information about power consumption or supply to be used in ways not previously possible. For example, time of day metering wherein a different fee is charged for electricity consumed during peak hours becomes readily feasible if the information from the power meter is used to increment various registers, the particular register depending upon the time of day. Furthermore, the electrical signals from such a meter may be readily transmitted to remote locations for billing or other purposes.
One approach to fabricating a power meter using solid state components is described in PCT International Publication Nos. W085/00893 and W085/00894. The system described therein also relies on pulse width-pulse height multiplication performed by a multiplier circuit which produces a signal current proportional to the product of the measured current and voltage. A current-to-frequency converter receives that current and provides an output signal for driving a display.
The multiplier shown in PCT [893 has two main disadvantages. The MOSFET switch array associated with the resistor in series with the current path injects a parasitic current proportional to the frequency of a triangular wave signal which has been added to the potential supplied. To reduce this charge injection, the frequency of the triangular wave signal is decreased. unfortunately thereby reducing the multiplier bandwidth. Furthermore, even at such low frequencies an overall charge injection minimization trim is required.
As shown in the '894 publication, the offset voltage of an operational amplifier in the current-to-frequency converter is cancelled by opening and closing switches which load the offset voltage onto a capacitor. Unfortunately, during the time the switches are in this configuration, the current-to-frequency converter is disconnected from the circuit and no power is measured. If a power spike should occur during this time, it is not measured. Furthermore, although this technique cancels the offset voltage, it causes charge injection into the measurement circuitry, thereby creating measurement errors.
A more significant disadvantage of this circuitry is that frequencies in the power distribution system may be synchronous with the frequency with which the offset voltage is cancelled. To minimize charge injection into the measurement circuit, the lowest frequency possible is desirable for cancelling the offset. As the frequency of cancellation is reduced, however, the frequency of cancellation becomes integrally divisible into more frequencies appearing in the power distribution system, resulting in errors of several percent in measurement of the electric energy consumed or supplied. Another disadvantage of the circuitry is the requirement for external voltage reference source.
Other known pertinent art is described in an accompanying disclosure statement.